Board President Chuck Bernstein

Chuck Bernstein is president and founder of Early Learning Institute, a Palo Alto-based educational organization that operates three child development centers and two private schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. The programs serve over 500 students and employ 125 teachers and administrators. Though his responsibilities are primarily administrative, he also teaches writing and presentation skills.

From 1977 to 1984, he was the governor’s appointee to the California State Commission on Special Education and served as its chairperson from 1982 to 1983. Previously, he was a business consultant to both private and public sector clients, specializing in budgeting and finance as well as new enterprise business planning.

Chuck was the founding business manager (1974-1983) of TheatreWorks, a local theater troupe that has become nationally-recognized. He was the co-founder and coordinator of “Citizen Patrol,” a group of Menlo Park residents who banded together to fight crime and drug dealing in the Willows Neighborhood in the early 1990s. He has served on many local task forces and advisory committees. An Eagle Scout, he has been active in Boy Scouts and local sports.

He is CERT trained and serves on the steering committee of CERT District 28 (The Willows). Prior to be elected to the district’s board, he was appointed by Chief Schapelhouman to the district’s CERT Advisory Board. He is treasurer of Ring the Bell Fund, a charitable non-profit organization working to put alarm and monitoring systems in public schools.

Chuck earned an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a Ph.D. in languages and linguistics, also from Stanford University. He obtained his bachelor’s degree,
magna cum laude
, from Princeton University as well as a certificate from the Université de Strasbourg (France).

Chuck is married and has two sons, both of whom are graduates of Menlo-Atherton High School. He has lived in Menlo Park since 1968.